Sea Kayaking - Canoe & Kayak

6 ISSUE FORTYnine • 2009
Fishing
Bait Versus Plastic
By Tom Hunsdale
Warren heading out
On a stunning Friday spring afternoon my workmate Warren
and I set out to fish off the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. We drove
to Army Bay, the last place along the peninsula with access
to the water, and soon had the yaks off the roof. I intended
to practise for the first time with my new QK Torres. Warren
had his trusty Scrambler.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the water was like oil and the
temperature must have been 18 degrees. I had heard that the fi sh were
at the 35 metre mark, and seeing a few boats further out we paddled
in their direction to ‘borrow’ their electronic sounders! We went 2 kms
towards Kawau Island. Warren fi shed with bait while I had my soft
plastic rig, a little Abu Garcia set with 4kg braid. The fi sh bit straight
away. Lots of little tap tap taps signalled the end of my fi rst soft bait.....I
wound up and yep, tail gone, tiny teeth marks everywhere. It looked like
being one of those days, but "a bad day fi shing is better than your best
day at work!"
Warren spied some birds working a further couple of kms towards
Kawau. My Torres is a wee bit quicker than Warren's Scrambler so
I took off. I found more of a simmer than a boil but worth dropping a
line. Sure enough I hooked up almost instantly, the tell tale nodding
indicating a snapper. It wasn’t a huge fi sh but the sit-in is less stable
than the sit-on-top so playing it was interesting! Catching it felt like
juggling on a unicycle. I got the fi sh up without capsizing and checked
for legal size. Borderline! So back he went.
The minimum size for snapper, which I think is too small, is 27 cms.
Years ago on Great Barrier Island, I was told by a good fi shermen,
“If you have to measure, it must be too small, throw it back!” I have a
measure marked at 30cm on my Prowler 13 and that's as small as I
want to take. I didn't have anything on the Torres to measure with and
Fishing hard
The kayaks loaded and ready to go